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The Spanish Wool Trade, 1500–1780

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

Carla Rahn Phillips
Carla Rahn Phillips
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of History at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455.
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Abstract

Official tax records and other documents provide the sources for an estimation of wool exports overtime. Four main points emerge: after a peak circa 1550, exports stagnated and declined for over a century before rising again strongly; political and economic developments in Spain and the rest of Europe affected both the volume and the direction of wool exports; most exports went to Flanders before 1550, then to Italy for a time, and finally to northern Europe again from about 1650 onward; and Spanish merchants controlled most of the trade until the mid- sixteenth century but lost dominance thereafter, retaining control only over the internal market supplying wool for export.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 42 , Issue 4 , December 1982 , pp. 775 - 795
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1982

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References

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3 Several recent works have dealt with the wool trade over limited spans of time. The best is Lapeyre, Henri, “Les exportations de lame de Castille sous le regne de Philippe II,” La lana come materia prima. I fenomeni della sua produzione e circulazione nei secoli XIII–XVII, ed. Spallanzani, Marco (Florence, 1974), pp. 221–39,Google Scholar expanded somewhat in chap. 4 of El co, nercio exterior de Castilla a través de las aduanas de Felipe II (valladolid, 1981).Google Scholar Although I disagree with Lapeyre on several major points, his discussion is very useful overall. See also Israel, Jonathan I., “Spanish Wool Exports and the European Economy, 1610–1640,” Economic History Review, 33 (05 1980), 193–211;Google Scholar and major chapters in Fernández, Manuel Basas, El Consulado de Burgos en el siglo XVI (Madrid, 1963)Google Scholarand Ulloa, Hacienda real.Google Scholar

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14 Ldpez, José Larraz, La época del mercantilismo en Castilla, 1500–1700, 2nd ed. (Madrid, 1943), pp. 49–50 postulates a decline in wool exports about 1530,Google Scholarbasing his remarks on the number of sheep listed in his reading of the Mesta accounts. This is contradicted in Flem, Le, “Cuentas de la Mesta,” pp. 68–69, which shows no perceptible downturn in the number of sheep before 1557. Variations in flock size could be considerable from year to year, but they would not necessarily affect average wool exports.Google Scholar

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27 Often there were several levels of tax returns available for a single year, from the local collector's accounts to a royal official's summary report. For other years there might be only onecomplete account. As one or another of the wool taxes was farmed, the account for one tax might appear much more complete than the account for another. In every case I selected the account that appeared to be the most complete, then divided the total tax by the tax rate to obtain an estimate in Castilian arrobas of 25 pounds each. Only the estimated arroba figures will be used here, with archival citations referring to the sources of the raw taxation figures.Google Scholar

28 Bruges, A. V., Cons. Esp., “Rótulos de las Averías, 1550:–1573”; AGS, CJH, leg. 35; AGS, CMC 2a, legs. 153, 187, 241–243, 269, 310, 334; AGS, CG, legs. 91, 2674, 2977; AGS, EMR, leg. 642.Google Scholar

29 Ibid. See also Phillips, William D. and Phillips, Carla Rahn, “Spanish Wool and Dutch Rebels: The Middelburg Incident of 1574,” American Historical Review, 82 (04 1977), 312–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

30 The College of Bruges sent a copy of their 1540 privilege to Nieuport, reprimanding that town for “I'abus de i'introduction en fraude des lames par cette yule, que avait pris de grandes proportions.”Gilliodts-van-Severen, Louis, Cartulaire de l'ancienne ertaple de Bruges, 4 vols. (Bruges, 1904–1906), 3:212.Google ScholarVázquez, Valentin de Prada notes that Calais, Rouen, and even Lille began receiving wool, with the king's knowledge and approval. Leures marchandes d' Anvers, 4 vols. (Paris, 1960), 1:107–08.Google ScholarIn 1574, however, Philip II issued a reconfirmation of Bruges's privilege as the sole wool staple in the Netherlands. Gilliodts-van-Severen, Esraple de Bruges, 3:236, 242.Google Scholar

31 AGS, CMC 2a, legs. 202, 245; CJH, leg. 266 and the Archivo del Consulado de Burgos (Burgos), insurance records. I am grateful to Mile. Marie Helmer for sharing her great knowledge of the Consulado insurance records with me and for allowing me to consult her research notes.Google Scholar

32 Martín, Felipe Ruiz, Leirres marchandes echangées entre Florence er Medina del Campo (Paris, 1965), pp. xciii–xcic.Google Scholar

33 AGS, Antigua, Guerra, leg. 1320.Google Scholar

34 AGS, EMR, legs. 640–641; CMC 2a, legs. 208, 242; CG. legs. 810, 2977, 2978; CJH, legs. 77, 208.Google ScholarBraudel, Fernand and Romano, Ruggiero, Navires er marchandise a l'enzrée du port de Livourne (1547–1611) (Paris, 1951), p. 92, n. 7, and p. 114.Google Scholar

35 Martín, Ruiz, Lerires marchandes, dozens of letters from 1579 to 1585.Google Scholar

36 See note 34.Google Scholar

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43 AGS, CG, leg. 2146; CMC 3a, legs. 2353, 2633, 2774, 3124, 3328.Google Scholar

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49 Romano, Ruggiero, “Tra XVI e XVII secolo. Una crisi economica: 1619–1622,” Rivista Storica Italiana, 74 (1962);Google Scholaridem, “Encore la crise de 1619–22,” Annales: Economies, Sociétés, Civilisations (1964), 31–37. Many other authors, too numerous to list here, have found evidence for this crisis as well.Google Scholar

50 See note 45.Google Scholar

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52 AGS, CMC 3a, legs. 1938, 2010, 2249, 2552, 2776.Google Scholar

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54 Sella, Domenico, “The Rise and Fall of the Venetian Woollen Industry,” Crisis and Change in the Venetian Economy in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, ed. Pullan, Brian (London, 1968), pp. 106–26;Google Scholaridem, Crisis and Continuity: The Economy of Spanish Lombardy in the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1979), PP. 54–55. In addition, Carlo M. Cipolla very kindly provided me with figures for Spanish wool imports to Genoa in the mid-seventeenth century.Google Scholar

55 AGS, CMC 3a, legs. 825, 2387, 2540, 3046, 3117, 3322, 3494, 3538; TMC, leg. 828.Google Scholar

56 AGS, CMC 3a, legs. 3033, 3368. In 1667 Sir William Godoiphin estimated that Spain exported the equivalent of about 296,000 arrobas of wool each year: 176,000 to Hamburg (undoubtedly diverted from Amsterdam because of the War of Devolution), 36,000 to England, 24,000 to Italy, 8,000 to Africa, and 52,000 to France. “Discourse by Sir William Godolphin Touching the Wools of Spain,” in Hispania Illustrata; or, The Maxims of the Spanish Court (London, 1703). This agrees well enough with estimates from the farm fees up to about 1663, but it seems too high for the late 1660s.Google Scholar

57 AGS, CMC 3a, legs. 329, 2249, 2540, 3117, 3439, 3553; TMC, leg. 830. Archivo Histôrico Nacional (Madrid) (henceforth AHN), Ministerio de Hacienda (henceforth MH), lib. 8010.Google Scholar

58 “A Treatise of Wool and Cattle, in a Letter Written to a Friend …,” (1677), printed in John Smith, Memoirs of Wool, 2 vols. (1747), 1:311–17.Google Scholar See also Ramsay, G. D., The Wiltshire Industry (London, 1943), p. 116.Google Scholar

59 Larrauri, Teofilo Guiard y, Historia del Consulado y Casa de Con tratación de la Villa de Bilbao, 2 vols. (Bilbao, 1913–1914; reprint ed. in 3 vols., Bilbao, 1972), 1:511–20.Google Scholar The Marquis of Villars commented in 1680 that the wool trade of Segovia had fallen considerably, since the devaluation had the effect of doubling the price of wool. “Memorias de la Corte de Espana,” in Mercadal, José Garcia, ed., Viajes de extranjeros por Espana y Portugal, 3 vols. (Madrid, 1952), 2:915.Google Scholar

60 See, for example, Pérez, Fortea, Córdoba; García Sanz, Desarrollo y crisis; Phillips, Ciudad Real; and Kamen, Spain in the Later Seventeenth Century.Google Scholar

61 AGS, CMC 3a, legs. 526, 2609, 2732, 2768, 2852, 3055; TMC, legs. 811, 812, 833, 881.Google Scholar

62 AHN, MH, libs. 8010, 8011; Consejos Suprimidos, lib. 1475, libro año 1708; Biblioteca Nacional (Madrid), Raros 23729.Google Scholar

63 See the list of wool prices in Sanz, García, Desarrollo y crisis, pp. 198–200.Google Scholar

64 The British Merchant, 1713,Google Scholar excerpted in Smith, , Memoirs of Wool, 2:136.Google Scholar

65 Smith, , Memoirs of Wool, 2:441–42.Google Scholar

66 Uztáriz, Gerónimo de, Teorica y prádctica de comercio y marina (Madrid, 1724), chap. II;Google ScholarCalatayud, Pedro, Tratados y doctrinas prdcticas sobre ventas y compras de lanas merinas y or ros géneros… (Toledo, 1761), p. 6 supplies the 1740 figure.Google Scholar See also Penido, Manuel Colmeiro y, Historia de la economía polItica en España, 2 vols. (Madrid, 1863; reprint ed. Madrid, , 1965), 2:750–51 for a discussion of various eighteenth-century estimates of flock numbers.Google Scholar

67 AGS, TMC, leg. 834.Google Scholar

68 Calatayud, Trarados, p. 68, passim.Google Scholar

69 The proportions going to Holland, France, and England seem to have remained steady. I am grateful to Ozanam, M. Didier, Director of the Casa de Velâzquez in Madrid, for calling my attention to a memorandum from the Archive Nationale de la Marine in Paris, estimating the same proportions in 1728–1729.Google Scholar

70 Posthumus, Geschiedenis van de Leidsche Lakenindustrie, 3:756; van Houtte, Economic History of the Low Countries, pp. 257–59, 287–88.Google ScholarSaillant, Charles Philibert Lasteyrie du, An Account of the Introduction of Merino Sheep into the Different Slates of Europe (London, 1810 ed.), pp. 8–9 mentions the use of Spanish wool in Sweden, which imported over 2.6 million pounds of it between 1751 and 1790.Google Scholar

71 Markovitch, Tihonur J., Les industries lainières de Colbert à la Revolution (Geneva, 1976), pp. 485–88;Google ScholarDardel, Pierre, Navires et marchandises dans les ports de Rouen et du Havre au XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 1963), pp. 103–05, 196.Google Scholar

72 Estimated from the figures in Elizabeth Boody Schumpeter, , English Overseas Trade Statistics, 1697–1808, ed. Ashton, T. S. (Oxford, 1960), Table XVI, pp. 523–54.Google Scholar

73 Ibid.McLachlan, Jean Oliva, Trade and Peace with Old Spain (Cambridge, 1940), p. 9, cites an anonymous source that 6,000 bags of Spanish wool entered England yearly at this time, which would mean about 48,000 arrobas.Google Scholar

74 Carter, H. B., His Majesty's Spanish Flock: Sir Joseph Banks and the Merinos of George III of England (Sydney, 1964), p. 7.Google Scholar

75 AGS, DGR la, legs. 2579–2598. Total production in 1799 was given as 2,038,759 arrobas (probably unwashed) in the Censo defrutos y manufacturas de España e islas adyacentes (Madrid, 1803);Google Scholar exports from that total were given as 417,266 arrobas in Arguelles, José Canga, Diccionario de hacienda, 5 vols. (London, 1826–1827), 3:142–43. Merino wool lost about half its weight in the washing.Google Scholar

76 Sella, Crisis and Continuity, p. 81;Google ScholarRapp, Richard T., “The Unmaking of the Mediterranean Trade Hegemony: International Trade Rivalry and the Commercial Revolution,” this JOURNAL, 35 (09 1975), 511–17.Google Scholar

77 Verlinden, Charles, “A propos de la politique économique des ducs de Bourgogne à l'égard de l” Hispania, 10 (1950), 681–715;Google ScholarGilliodts-van-Severen, Louis, Cartulaire de l'ancien consulat d' Espagne a Bruges, 1280–1550 (Bruges, 1901);Google ScholarMarechal, Joseph, “La colonie espagnole de Bruges du XIVe au XVIe siècle,” Revue du Nord, 35 (01–03 1953), 5–40;CrossRefGoogle ScholarTouchard, Henri, Le commerce maritime breton a la fin du Moyen Age (Paris, 1967);Google ScholarMollat, Michel, Le commerce maritime normand a lafin du Moyen Age (Paris, 1952);Google ScholarChilds, Wendy R., Anglo-Castilian Trade in the Later Middle Ages (Manchester, 1978), pp. 216–17;Google ScholarRuiz, Teófilo F., “Castilian Merchants in England, 1248–1350,” Order and innovation in the Middle Ages: Essays in Honor of Joseph R. Strayer (Princeton, 1976), pp. 173–85.Google Scholar

78 Pike, Ruth, Aristocrats and Traders. Sevillian Society in the Sixteenth Century (Ithaca, New York, 1972), pp. 61, 123–26.Google ScholarEdwards, John H., “El comercio lanero en Córdoba bajo los Reyes CatOlicos,” Actas del I Congreso de Historia de Andalucía, December 1976 (1978), 1:423–28, analyzes nearly two hundred wool sale contracts for 1471–1515 that show the Burgalese domination of the Cordoban market.Google Scholar

79 Martín, Felipe Ruiz found that Italian, and particularly Genoese. merchant capitalists in Spain sought wool to export before 1551 and between 1559 and 1566, because the crown forbade the export of specie in those years. When specie could be freely exported after 1566, Ruiz's Italians moved out of the wool trade.Google Scholar Spanish merchants played the role of simple intermediaries for the Italians, rather than having an independent status. “La empresa capitalista en la industria textil castellana durante los siglos XVI y XVII,” International Conference of Economic History, Munich, 1965 (Paris,. 1974). This view is not supported by the history of the wool trade or by the analysis of merchants and wool shown in Tables 1–3. Furthermore, although some Italians may have been brief, intense participants in the wool trade, many others were steady participants, particularly on the southeast coast where they continued to dominate long after 1566.Google Scholar

80 AGS, CMC 3a, leg. 537; TMC, legs. 813–815.Google Scholar

81 AGS, Estado, leg. 194, letter of Bernardino de Avellaneda to the king, 26 Sept. 1603 and leg. 255, letter of Cespedes, J. G. to the king, 20 May 1614.Google Scholar Cited in Moret, Michèle, Aspects de la société marchande de Seville au debut du XVIIe siècle (Paris, 1967), p. 80.Google Scholar

82 Pérez, Fortea, Córdoba, pp. 341–43.Google Scholar

83 Fernández, Manuel Basas, ”Relaciones económicas entre Burgos y Florencia en el siglo XVI,” Boletín de la Institución Ferndn Gonzádlez (1965), 689–713. On pp. 704–13 Basas prints short biographies of Spanish merchants dealing with Italy.Google Scholar

84 Martín, Felipe Ruiz, “Rasgos estructurales de Castilla en tiempos de Carlos V,” Moneda y Crédito, 96 (1966), 91–108.Google Scholar

85 Prada, Vazquez de, Leitres marchandes d' Anvers, 1:170–78.Google Scholar

86 Real Academia de la Historia (Madrid), Colección de Vargas Ponce, tomo 29 contains the records of one Burgalese attempt to monopolize the wool trade in 1624–1625. See also Pujal, Jaime Carrera, Historia de la economla española, 5 vols. (Barcelona, 1943–1947), 2:121–48;Google Scholar and Albaladejo, Pablo Fernández, La crisis del Antiguo Régimen de Guipdzcoa, 1766–1833: Cambio económico e hisgoia (Madrid, 1975), p. 84.Google Scholar

87 AGS, CMC 3a, leg. 2249. For the increased role of Basques in the wool trade see Sanz, García, Desarrollo y crisis, pp. 116–17, 241–42.Google Scholar

88 Sevilla, Archivo Municipal de (Seville), Contaduría, Carpeta 154.Google Scholar

89 AGS, CMC 3a, leg. 2249; TMC, leg. 836.Google Scholar

90 See, for example, Calatayud, Trarados, passim, and Saillant, Charles Philibert Lasteyrie du, Trairé sur les bêres à lame d' Espagne (Paris, 1799), pp. 99–101.Google Scholar